Web-based, self-service outbound contact center utilizing speaker-independent interactive voice response and including enhanced IP telephony

Abstract

Disclosed is an on demand, web-based, outbound contact center utilizing Voice over IP (VoIP) and speaker-independent voice recognition which automatically captures contact responses to question events in a pre-recorded, interactive voice call, the call launched by a user via a broadcast comprising a call sequence created by the user via a call center user interface comprising event add and logic add wizards, the call sequence comprising event prompts based on a user-generated script comprising message events and question events, the event prompts in the group consisting of voice recordings and text-to-speech inputs.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A web-based, software only, media gateway-free communication system comprising:
 a web server comprising a website application providing a do-it-yourself user interface whereby a user creates and saves a call sequence based on a user script for an interactive call to a contact and creates a VoIP call broadcast, the broadcast comprising a call sequence, a plurality of contacts and a schedule, a relational database comprising contact information and being in communication with the website application,   a media server in communication with the web server, the media server comprising a speech and telephony application comprising a speaker independent voice recognition engine, the speech and telephony application executing call sequences of broadcasts based on the schedule per a scheduler service application on the web server, the VoIP call per the call sequence delivered to a contact communication device, and   a user communication device in communication with the web server via a web browser.   
     
     
         2 . The communication system per  claim 1  wherein the schedule comprises one item in the group of launch immediately and launch at a later, designated time. 
     
     
         3 . The communication system per  claim 1  wherein the media server further comprises a SIP proxy server enabling communication between the speech and telephony application and a Voice Over IP provider providing call termination within a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), the VoIP calls of the call sequence delivered to contact communication devices on the PSTN. 
     
     
         4 . The communication system per  claim 1  wherein the system is hosted in one of a private cloud, public cloud, a hybrid cloud. 
     
     
         5 . The communication system per  claim 1  wherein the media server further comprises a Back-to-Back User Agent whereby the speech and telephony application can execute call sequences to terminate to soft phones. 
     
     
         6 . The communication system per  claim 1  wherein a repository of saved call sequences is made available to all users for use in creating broadcasts. 
     
     
         7 . The communication system per  claim 1  wherein the website application further comprises a contact opt in/opt out functionality. 
     
     
         8 . The communication system per  claim 1  further comprising a text (SMS) messaging functionality whereby a user may optionally incorporate a text message as an event in a call sequence when a contact phone number is a mobile number. 
     
     
         9 . In a computer-implemented contact center comprising a speech and telephony application comprising a speaker independent voice recognition engine, the contact center enabling a user to create and launch, on demand, from a user communication device automated outbound interactive VoIP calls to contacts based on a user-provided call script, a non-transitory computer-readable medium having program code embodied therein configured to cause the execution of the following steps:
 Providing a visual user interface prompting the user to   a. input contact information comprising contact phone numbers, the contact information stored in a relational database of the contact center,   b. create a call sequence based on a user script for a desired interaction with a contact, the call sequence comprising one or more events in the group comprising yes/no-type question events, custom answer-type question events, open-ended question events and message events, the call sequence further comprising a logic controlling the sequencing of events in the call sequence based upon a contact response to the event, the user selecting a format for the events of the script from the group of voice recording and text-to-speech prompt, the user recording a voice recording for events of the call sequence via a built-in audio recording functionality   c. create a broadcast, the broadcast comprising a pre-defined, saved call sequence, a plurality of contacts and a launch schedule, where the launch schedule comprises an item in the group of immediate launch and scheduled launch and   d. launch the broadcast, whereupon the speech and telephony application causes the execution of the call sequence of the broadcast and delivery to contact communication devices on the Public Switched Telephone Network or soft phone application.   
     
     
         10 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium per  claim 9  wherein there is further provided code causing the automatic creation of real-time exportable reports capturing contact responses to question events of the call sequence of each launched broadcast. 
     
     
         11 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium per  claim 9  wherein there is further provided code causing the automatic creation of real-time exportable reports capturing contact responses to question events of the call sequence of each launched broadcast, the contact responses to open-ended-type question events of the call sequence automatically translated from voice to text via an integrated speech-to-text application. 
     
     
         12 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium per  claim 9  wherein there is further provided code to cause the automatic creation of real-time exportable reports capturing contact responses to events per the call sequence of launched broadcasts, the reports comprising automatically-calculated metrics comprising the metric of a call completion rate for a broadcast, where the call completion rate for a broadcast is calculated by dividing the total number of calls of a broadcast wherein the contact responded and each event of the call sequence executed by the total number of calls comprising the broadcast. 
     
     
         13 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium per  claim 9  further providing program code for a visual interface in the call sequence creation step whereby a user is prompted to create at least one speech recognition escalation event for each question-type event of the call sequence. 
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium per  claim 9  further comprising program code providing a visual interface prompting the user to optionally create a contact group that is a subset of all of the contacts in a contacts database of the contact center, the contacts filtered based on one or more filters in the group comprising the filters of age, gender, occupation, city, zip code, opt in or opt out status, medical diagnosis code, last seen appointment date, next scheduled appointment date, purchase transaction history, account balance, the user able to select a contact group in designating contacts when creating a broadcast. 
     
     
         15 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium per  claim 9  further comprising program code configured to provide a visual call scripting tool whereby a visual diagram of event flow in a call sequence is automatically created and displayed to aid the user in building a call sequence based on the script. 
     
     
         16 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium per  claim 9  wherein the visual interface for the call sequence creation step further comprises an optional Transfer to Live Attendant event functionality which if selected and incorporated into a call sequence causes the speech and telephony application executing the call sequence during a broadcast to exit the call sequence upon reaching the Transfer to Live Attendant event in the call sequence and terminate to a user-specified phone number as per the Transfer to Live Attendant event. 
     
     
         17 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium per  claim 9  further comprising program code in the broadcast creation step that causes the automatic launching of at least one test broadcast to a user's direct phone number before the broadcast is launched to the plurality of contacts specified for the broadcast. 
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium per  claim 9  further comprising program code in the call sequence creation step whereby each question event of the call sequence is automatically replayed as an escalation event when a contact response to the said question event is not detected or understood by the speech application. 
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium per  claim 9  further comprising program code for a visual user interface prompting the user to optionally create and incorporate into a call sequence a contact authentication event. 
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium per  claim 9  further comprising program code causing the automatic removal of a contact from the contacts database when the contact has opted out of receiving the automated calls launched via the contact center. 
     
     
         21 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium per  claim 9  further comprising program code configured to cause the automatic sending of an alert to the user when a contact has responded to a pre-defined maximum number of calls within a specified period. 
     
     
         22 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium per  claim 9  further comprising program code configured to terminate an active broadcast upon the attainment of a user-specified termination event. 
     
     
         23 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium per  claim 9  wherein the visual user interface for the call sequence creation step further comprises an optional Send SMS event which if selected by the user and incorporated into a call sequence will cause the sending of a user-specified SMS message to a mobile communication device of a contact when the Send SMS event is reached in the call sequence during execution of the call sequence in a broadcast. 
     
     
         24 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium per  claim 9  where the user is one of the group of market research service provider entity, healthcare provider entity, service provider to a healthcare provider entity, artist and insurance provider entity.